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Alaska and All Its Beauty and Darkness

31January 2016January 31, 2016January 31, 2016February 1, 2016

I spent six years of my life living in Anchorage, AK and it was an incredible six years. When I was 30 years old, I uprooted my life and my daughter’s life and away we went to the far away, majestic land. Thanksgiving day of my 36th year, we left because she was soon to be 18 years old and ready to leave, I was over the dark winters and my family was beginning to die off leaving me feeling like I needed to close the gap between us and them by a couple thousand miles. Here’s a brief telling of my experience in Alaska.

I traveled up there for a week Memorial weekend of the year 2006. Driving down the Kenai Peninsula, lost in the beauty of the mountains and the sea, I began to wonder what it would be like to live there. Seven days later, I flew home after an incredible camping trip, fishing like I’d never known and experiencing time travel in reverse because Anchorage is or was like going back in time, I knew this would soon be my home.

September of 2006, I packed up my belonging (those I didn’t sell) put them on a pallet and shipped them ahead, bought a Subaru because they are a supreme car for snowy climate and began my two week journey across country. We spent four days in Yellowstone (which is my personal Disneyland) and completed the trek through Canada along the Alcan (the road into Alaska) finally ending up in Anchorage.

My time there was an opportunity for intense growth, learning more of my passion for the outdoors (although I never learned to ski) and making some of the best friends I could ask for. Since leaving, I’m still very close to many of those people and some of them have also left therefore, I get to see them fairly regularly. The community life there is unlike anything I’ve experienced and the scenery….well, below are some pictures (amateur shots taken by me) and you can judge for yourself.

A cold winter day driving down the road heading to Jack Sprat Restaurant in Girdwood, AK. Jack Sprat is my favorite restaurant in the entire state of Alaska (of the restaurants I’ve been to I should say). They are very health conscious and locally source as much food as they can, make everything from scratch and have a raw cheesecake that will send you over the moon. The mountain in front of me is Alyeska which is a huge tourist attraction and ski resort. As you can see, it is winter and there is daylight. The misconception of Alaska being dark in the winter is still rather broad and I’m here to tell you that there IS daylight (below the arctic circle) every day in Alaska. It’s just less daylight than those living in the lower 48 have to deal with. A lot less.

This shot is of a small little area just south of Anchorage called Potter’s Marsh. In the winter time, you can ice skate on the open water area’s and in the summer time, you can walk all the different boardwalks in hopes of seeing a moose or even a bear on the hunt. Potter’s Marsh if full of wildlife and adventure and offers some great views on a clear day.

As for the featured image, that is just a random glacier from the air, but make note that there are plenty of glaciers that can be hiked to and seen up close and personal. I have many more pictures, sadly not on this computer, but if you have interest in seeing more, leave a comment below and I’ll do a pictures and description only blog for you. If you have any questions about Alaska and/or living there, don’t hesitate to ask.

6 thoughts on “Alaska and All Its Beauty and Darkness”

Hey Leighann,
Funny thing, I just got my first published story up on amazon, in a horror anthology called “Frightenings.” The story is called “Midnight In Alaska” and was inspired by my cruise there, from anchorage to dinali and back.
It’s a fun spooky, santa clause house story about the north pole! Youd probably like it!
ANyway, heres a link to my blog post all about it, if u wanat to check it out!http://writingfictionnow.com/2016/01/18/its-2016-and-a-real-hum-dinger/